BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra’s film music concerts have become so well-established in the February calendar in recent years that they surely count one of Dorset’s great annual traditions.

This year, the theme was Heroes and Monsters – a subject broad enough to encompass everything from Harry Potter to James Bond.

The evening began with Jurassic Park and its first sequel The Lost World, John Williams’ gorgeous melodies and rich orchestration resounding through the Lighthouse’s concert hall. The whole orchestra is worked hard in Williams’ music, but the string section was especially good, conveying the lumbering majesty of Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs.

The strings had all the attention during selections from Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho, a score that contains no other instruments. The audience was audibly impressed at the way the musicians created those high-pitched stabbing sounds in the movie’s most famous musical cue.

Inevitably, John Williams was well represented, with six pieces including the encore performance of the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark. But the selections weren’t all obvious. We had Harry Potter and Jaws, but also a rare chance to hear the wildly romantic theme from the 1979 Dracula and a fine cue from The Adventures of Tintin.

The surprises continued with two scores form video games – Richard Jacques’ James Bond 007: Blood Stone and David Buckley’s Shrek Forever After – which proved again that some of today’s best music is written for consoles.

It was good to see some other great film composers given a share of the spotlight. Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings piece The Fellowship was a beautifully played highlight, as was a selection of themes from Michael Giacchino’s richly melodic Super 8.

And Jerry Goldsmith, who was John Williams’ contemporary and perhaps his only peer, was remembered too. His epic music from The Mummy was terrific, but it was Gremlins that gave the show its memorable finale. The BSO, under conductor Pete Harrison, was at its versatile best in a suite that was at times quiet and beautiful, then ominous and atmospheric, and finally so anarchically enjoyable that it surely left everyone smiling.